Social media is one of the most important things you can invest in to help increase your brand perception. And we’re not just saying that because we manage social media. We’re saying it because it’s a fact.

But let’s start at the beginning. In order to increase your brand perception you have to know your brand. Inside out. Upside down. Why do customers want to use you? Why do they choose you over your competitors? Knowing your brand as well as you know yourself (even better than you know yourself, ideally) can only help when it comes to increasing your brand’s perception.

And what about those customers we’ve just mentioned. Who are they? What do they want from you? The answers to these questions will be extremely important when you’re thinking about your social media campaign. And you need to be thinking about your social media campaign if you want to increase your brand perception. Social media is an amazing way to get straight to your target audience, engaging both current customers and potentials, increasing your brand awareness in a way and to an extent never before possible.

And while you’re at it – you need to make sure that your brand message is consistent. And this doesn’t just mean making your website the same colour as your offices, or your logos the same on your staff t-shirts and caps. It can, and should be, so much more than this. To increase your brand perception in the most effective way possible you not only need the social media campaign to end all social media campaigns, but you need to make sure that at each point in that campaign, whether it be your Facebook profile or your Twitter account, your brand is consistent.

You need to know your products or services, your values and even your humour so all of your social media can be consistent and engaging and, maybe most importantly, instantly recognisable as you.

And what about your message? What are you trying to say to customers? Knowing and understanding your message is key when engaging with your customers over social media. How are they meant to understand what you’re about if you don’t?

We’ll finish by saying that we know that your brand is more than just social media. You’re a real business with products to deliver, services to…serve. But social media is at the heart of your business. It’s the customer interaction that up until a few years ago wasn’t possible. It’s a way to increase your brand perception and target your customers like never before. Effectively managed, it’s a very, very powerful tool. When thinking of ways to increase your brand perception, ignore social media and you’re ignoring a massive part of what it is to be a successful business.